VMware woos developers with Java cloud development platform
VMware is known for its work in virtualization. The company aims to change that, and announced on Tuesday a new product to assist in the automation, deployment and management of complex applications on its cloud infrastructure. vFabric Suite 5.1 is a new product that takes code acquired through VMware's acquisition of SpringSource and adds additional functionality to make it more attractive to developers.
Application deployment automation, PostgreSQL and SQLFire support, and enterprise support have been added to the SpringSource code. VMware says that the service will help provide developers with the core application services they need to run Java Spring applications either on-site or in the cloud.
"The cloud era is driving a transformation in applications", Cloud and Application Services vice president Jerry Chen says. "This is driving a real transition in the type of technologies our customers are using to build, run and manage these new applications". The initial release of vFabric suite last year led to a doubling of VMware's cloud business during 2011.
vFabric suite's new version will be available within the next month or so for $1,500 per virtual machine. SQLFire is available at a rate of $2,500 per VM. The company says that it decided to sell vFabric Suite in this manner so that customers would only pay for what they need, rather than purchase excess licenses that may never be used.
That said, VMware has a large mountain to climb when it comes to actually attracting developers. SpringSource's Java development framework is somewhat popular, it does have competitors in the space from Oracle and the open-source Eclipse project. And then there's Microsoft.
The Redmond, Wash. company's .NET framework remains quite popular among developers, and Amazon recently added .NET support to its Beanstalk Platform-as-a-Service offering. Given AWS' strong position in the market, and .NET's comprehensive set of development tools, VMware has its work cut out for it if it wants to become a true player in the development space.
It's likely going to require a good deal of marketing and cajoling on the company's part to convince that its own tools are on the level of Microsoft's, say analysts.
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